RESEARCH

Economic Benefits Statement

The work of MLAC-funded legal aid programs substantially boosts the Commonwealth’s economy each year by bringing in millions of federal dollars, improving the economic condition of low-income clients and other residents and saving the state millions in costly social services. In fiscal year 2016, new revenue for legal aid clients and cost savings to the Commonwealth from legal aid work totaled an estimated $49.2 million, of which $15.9 million was in the form of new federal revenue. The statement is available below:

Boston Bar Association Civil Legal Aid Task Force Report

In 2014, the Boston Bar Association’s Statewide Task Force to Expand Civil Legal aid in Massachusetts produced the report Investing in Justice: A Roadmap to Cost-Effective Funding of Civil Legal Aid in Massachusetts. This study, the result of comprehensive analysis of civil legal aid’s impact on the state, found that every dollar invested in civil legal aid returns between two and five dollars to the state and its residents. Read the full report to learn more about how lack of access to civil legal aid affects low-income people, the courts, and the state’s economy.